NEW AGE PAYING Part 3: Zuma should disband Communication Department - Davis

BY CHARL BOSCH - FEBRUARY 2, 2015

Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister for Communications, Gavin Davis, has called on President Jacob Zuma to do away with the Department of Communications.

Speaking in a statement on the party’s website, Davis said that rumours of the Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) being transferred from the department would see embattled Minister Faith Muthambi’s role in government being reduced “to practically nothing as this [would] fall under the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services.”

“The impending removal of the GCIS from her purview explains Muthambi’s recent unlawful threats to remove SABC Board Members from office. She is trying to extend her tentacles into the SABC because it is all she has left,” said Davis.

“But South Africa doesn’t want and doesn’t need a ‘Minister of the SABC’. An independent public broadcaster should operate at arm’s length from a Minister to ensure that it is free from political interference.”

In an earlier statement, Davis described Muthambi’s defence of the department for spending R10.2-million in government advertising on the Gupta-family owned New Age newspaper as “laughable”.

“The Minister cited The New Age’s “footprint” as the reason that disproportionately more was spent on it than other newspapers. She must be joking,” he said.

“The New Age has a mere 153,000 readers. Is Muthambi really suggesting that The New Age’s “footprint” is as big as the Sowetan’s with its 1.6 million readers across the country? Or that The New Age has a larger “footprint” than the Daily Sun with its 5.3 million readers in all provinces?”

“Does the Minister really expect us to believe that the decision to channel millions into The New Age had nothing to with the fact that the President’s close friends, the Guptas, own it? The people of South Africa know a scam when they see one,” he said adding that, “we demand real answers and real accountability for this sickening abuse of public money on a Zuma-aligned newspaper”.

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